<p>That’s interesting about the BC calculus teacher. Ds’s BC teacher is a sweetheart but doesn’t want people to know that. I would like to be a fly on the wall in there. There are multiple classes with a couple of sophomores, about 15 juniors and 10-12 seniors per class. I think he also really pumps them up. Two years ago, every kid who took the test has a 5, even if they had a B or C in the coursework. He really prepares them for that test.</p>
<p>Oh, the e-mails! Here is ds’s from the past FOUR days to the special e-mail he set up. I have no idea what he’s getting in his personal e-mail box:</p>
<p>St. John’s
Hofstra
Notre Dame
University of Miami
Brown
UGA
Wabash
Grinell
Duke
Swarthmore
Washington and Lee
Delaware
Williams
Wake Forest
Columbia
Tulane
Cal Lutheran
Rice</p>
<p>I have to use a completely different scale when looking at S1’s math experiences and S2’s. Different teachers, different approaches to the programs at each school, S1 is a math major and had significant subject acceleration, etc.</p>
<p>S2 gets B+ grades in math and got a very strong score on Math Level II. Took Pre-Calc last year, expecting to take IB SL Math Studies this year when he finishes Calc AB. However, due to schedule conflicts he wound up taking his IB sixth subject this year and has to take the math exam next year – which gives him the option of Math Studies SL or Math SL. </p>
<p>He is finding AB fairly easy, though he was once again afflicted with the curse of the 89 average. (OTOH, the teacher went to MIT and S will be very well prepared for the AP.) S2 thinks BC won’t be bad next year (what a change in attitude!), but is more interested in taking AP Stat, as he knows he will need to take 1-2 stat courses in college as part of his intended major. His debate now is whether to take BC Calc so the calc stays fresh enough for him to do the Math SL exam (and he feels that he’s got enough background now so that it won’t be too difficult), or to take Stat because it is an important part of his future goals. </p>
<p>S2 has talked to his Calc teacher, who says either one is fine, but that he’s going to have to self-study for a decent part of the IB math exam anyway – so why not take Stat. We’re all thinking that’s a good choice. His schedule is tough enough without gratuitous, self-imposed academic flagellation.</p>
<p>Revised senior year schedule:
HL Bio (double period)
HL Euro
HL English
AP Stat (will take IB SL Math exam)
IB Extended Essay (1st sem)/elective – probably a regional history course
IB Philosophy and World Religions SL</p>
<p>He’s adding a 7th IB subject, but probably will not take the exam since noone gives college credit anyway. OTOH, it is the IB version of classes he wanted to take anyway, and the class is likely to be filled with his friends who all like to debate and argue. It will also be great background for his plans in IR.</p>
<p>We are supposed to get AP exam forms this week…so it looks like this spring will be IB SL Spanish, IB SL Econ, AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Eng Lang, AP Spanish and AP Calc AB. He has made noises about AP Euro, but the first year of the HL Euro class doesn’t get through everything on the AP Euro exam, and I don’t know when he expects he can self-study the rest (though he eats, sleeps and breathes the subject). Oy vey!!</p>
<p>You guys are going to laugh. D just called from school and changed her mind. Now she wants to take BC.</p>
<p>Another dilemma: Her French teacher is horrified that she won’t be taking French V next year and wants D to reconsider.</p>
<p>I said “honey, you make whatever decision you want and come tell me it as a surprise when you get home.”</p>
<p>It looks like she may end up with 4 APs and 2 honors (all in academic subjects except AP Music Theory), which, of course, still doesn’t count as “most rigorous”.</p>
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<p>How do I get D to stop doing that to herself?</p>
<p>^^Magically turn her into a son ;)^^</p>
<p>QM, I know what you mean! Ds’s notion of taking multivariable calculus next year was just the academic version of wanting to keep up with the Joneses. Thankfully, this feeling has passed. :)</p>
<p>Sounds like she’ll do fine in BC Cal. It’s definitely been ds’s greatest academic challenge, but that’s OK. I hope that when he gets in college he now understands what he needs to do when faced with difficulty.</p>
<p>archiemom, LOL! A’int that the truth. What I didn’t say in the previous post is the “difficulty” he encountered in BC Cal was his innate laziness!!</p>
<p>No way, archiemom. I have two girls and am VERY happy about that fact. My 25 yo nephew is still giving me daily headaches. No academic self-flagellation for him. He’s all about easy money and easy women. I’ll take my academically inclined girls any day!</p>
<p>With S1, the torture ended when he went to college! No stupid, inane HW assignments – just interesting stuff that he has dived into wholeheartedly (even the Core classes). </p>
<p>With S2, we just say, “Don’t you want to have time for football and to hang out with your GF?” :p</p>
<p>Funny, the mail just came with 7 college brochures (small ones, not the big flip books.)</p>
<p>My D hasn’t received much paper college mail recently, she took the PSAT and then took the ACT. (eta- she gets a steady stream almost daily, but there hasn’t been an uptick recently)</p>
<p>Good luck QM and others for what they finally decide on the schedules. </p>
<p>We have our kickoff “Jr college planning night” on Thursday.</p>
<p>I wondered about the college mail too after reading some of these posts. I was thinking that my son is a dud since we aren’t getting any. I thought his scores were pretty good, but maybe the bar is higher. So, I asked my son about it yesterday - seems he’s been intercepting the mail and hording the loot! He set up an email address *unbeknownst to me 
and he is getting all the emails there. He is raiding the mailbox before I get home from work, taking the college stuff and leaving the bills!!! </p>
<p>He’s pitching those he has no interest in (which is most of them) and is responding to those he does. </p>
<p>Wow, 3rd child syndrome - total and complete independence from mom!! What am I going to obsess about if he doesn’t give me access!! LOL!!</p>
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<p>LOL, you can always help me obsess about my firstborn.</p>
<p>But I completely understand. My younger D doesn’t tell me anything and never asks for help. I wonder what she’ll be like in high school.</p>
<p>^^I’ve been wondering the same thing, QM.</p>
<p>Liked your response, archiemom.</p>
<p>This is sort of funny - I’ve been reading about everyone’s kids getting emails from colleges - and I know D received non-stop emails last year, but ever since she switched to her own email, she doesn’t tell me what she gets. Well, I just snuck up to peek at her email (which she usually leaves opened on her computer). When I first looked, there was nothing there, but within 2 seconds, one email from Oberlin popped up and then 2 different ones from American. She still gets a small amount of snail mail each day, but nothing like what she was receiving last year at this time.</p>
<p>ag and QM, My S is the same way. I never know what is going on in his life beyond the basics. I learn more from his buddies than I do from him!</p>
<p>Does anyone get the comic “Zits” in their newspaper? That is my life! I’m living in the comic papers! Life with a 16-year-old boy…whatcha gonna do…</p>
<p>“Zits” is funny and too close to the truth (even if I do have girls)</p>
<p>At my D’s school, they don’t let the kids get credit for Calc BC after Calc AB because they overlap too much. The Calc BC class this year finished all of the AB material by the midterm, so it is a very fast-paced course. The key is to REALLY know the precalc, so that all of those functions are at the student’s fingertips. QM–it sounds like your D will be in good shape in that regard.</p>
<p>QM:</p>
<p>LOL about your D deciding on Calculus BC. Better ask her if there isn’t some student (like my S last year) lobbying her in the background to go for the gusto.</p>
<p>The good things about the BC students from last year that I noticed is that they didn’t flaunt their ability. Rather, there seems to be a quiet pride as they go about their business, the seniors trying for the best tech/engineering schools they can get into. Some good hits so far: USC, Columbia.</p>